The Shining
This piece will feature mild spoilers for The Shining, to see my final thoughts spoiler-free, skip to the final paragraph below!
Horror is a genre that can be very much hit or miss for fans. There’s a sect of people who love horror for the thrill of it, possibly going as far as to say it could be the best genre of filmmaking for the way you’re engrossed in each and every moment and fear of what is around the next corner. I very much live on the opposite side of this viewpoint avoiding haunted hayrides and attractions, freaking out when someone wants to tell scary stories, and changing the channel whenever a commercial for something of the genre comes on my TV. Thankfully I’ve moved past two of those things as I’ve gotten older (I’ll leave which of those up to you to decide) and have managed to very minimally break down that mental wall I’ve spent years developing. The Shining is one film that I’ve known for a long time is a cinema masterpiece but avoided out fear. Finally, with Doctor Sleep’s release next week, I decided that on Halloween, I was finally going to challenge my worst fears and watch The Shining.
Starting off as I’d expect from a Kubrick film, The Shining opens with phenomenal music and a sense of seclusion. These two things could be considered major themes for the movie, rather than just a storytelling tool. The camera follows the vehicle of Jack Torrance, played by the phenomenal Jack Nicholson, and an ominous score depicts the terror to come. The mountainside feels empty, with no cars travelling the other direction of the road and not a soul following him to the overall seclusion that comes from going the Overlook Hotel, the destination of Jack’s long journey.
A writer by trade, Jack is seeking ever-elusive peace and quiet to put pen to paper on a new idea he has been thinking through. The Overlook Hotel is a seasonal vacation destination, and as such it closes down in the winter months. As a result, the employees go home, but a hired caretaker is brought in to oversee the hotel. Jack is the man for the job, but before getting a tour of the resort, he is told a warning that the current proprietor is obligated to give. 10 years prior, the caretaker of the hotel in the winter had murdered his entire family in horrifying ways and ended his own life shortly after.
Jack decides that this isn’t a dealbreaker for him and even goes as far as to not tell his wife Wendy and son Danny of what has occurred at the hotel as he sees the opportunity as too great to pass up. Upon their arrival, Wendy is in awe of the magnificence in front of her, and Danny along with his imaginary “friend” Tony, begin to explore the many corridors of the hotel. Before the staff leaves, Danny meets a chef named Dick Hallorann, who notices that Tony isn’t just an imaginary friend, but a representation of a mystical power that he also possesses, known as the Shining.
The best parts of this film continue that aforementioned theme of seclusion and loneliness. Jack, Wendy, and Danny are the only living beings in the hotel. Throughout the first half of the film, there’s a large number of visual shots showing the overall vastness and emptiness of this massive hotel. It really helps the audience understand the scale of this, and just how alone the Torrance family really is. Even seemingly playful shots of Danny riding around his toy three-wheeler help to show the size of the building. The framing of these shots also helps to play a role, often in what feels like a cube, they convey very structure angles that leave you at a distance from the subject of the scene. With all of this loneliness and only each other available to see for nearly six months, cabin fever is bound to set in for them, and the true psychological horror of the film begins to set it.
The Overlook Hotel, while a rather beautiful and picturesque location upon first glace, holds quite an important terrifying secrets behind it’s doors. Paranormal beings come and go from the hotel, at first slowly, helping to build the sense of dread that the family faces. There are specific rooms that are known to house these beings, rooms which Dick cautions Danny to avoid. Of the three, it’s Jack who is the most mentally weak of the grouping, becoming the subject of the majority of the advances of these beings, descending into madness.
Throughout the film, we’re teased with Jack Torrance’s history of abuse and alcoholism. It’s part of the story that foreshadows coming events and helps to show the distrust between him and Wendy. Nicholson and Kubrick are able to portray this excellently through a variety of facial expressions and scenes with an unnecessary amount of takes to help more truly portray madness. It’s arguably one of Nicholson’s best performances in his career and helps me gain an understanding of why he was chosen for the Joker. I will admit though, I understand the complaint of Stephen King, the author of the novel The Shining: Jack Nicholson’s portrayal leans more into the darkness of the character, never trying to portray a sympathetic man on the brink. In the end, it’s a minor grievance for an excellent performance. Nicholson’s way of showing that madness below the surface on-screen through a variety of facial expressions hallucinations.
Offering up mainly questions about the mythology of the hotel and Jack’s psyche, it never reveals it’s hand to the viewer and because of this, it’s that much better for it. Many horror films or mystery stories choose to reveal the reasons behind what occurred by the film’s end, removing the mysticality and mystery from the story. The Shining doesn’t do this, leaving the viewer the opportunity to draw their own conclusions about the Overlook Hotel and the people surrounding it. It helps personalize the story for the viewer and create a better overall experience for them, instead of giving them all the answers.
The Shining is a film that I find very hard to really nail down solid discussion points on because it almost feels like I’m just going to give an entire plot recap of the film in order to truly discuss it and give it the due it deserves. It’s not meant to hit you with jump scares and terrifying in your face moments, it’s more about slowly building the dread and psychological terror that comes with the film. I never had that feeling of “I have to turn this off,” because the film is just so engrossing in its narrative and the way it offers it up to the audience. For some, this psychological horror could be much worse than what is normally expected from horror films. The Shining is a film that everyone who is a fan of horror, or even just cinema in general needs to see at some point in their life. It helps to portray the best of a very typecasted and overdone genre, while also giving off one of the best performances in cinema history. Take the leap of faith, and go pay a visit to the Overlook Hotel.
